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Guest: Open Lines. Topics: Space Show website & crowdfunding, space industry news, issues, & events covering timely topics. Please direct all comments and questions regarding Space Show programs/guest(s) to the Space Show blog, https://thespaceshow.wordpress.com. Comments and questions should be relevant to the specific Space Show program. Written Transcripts of Space Show programs are a violation of our copyright and are not permitted without prior written consent, even if for your own use. We do not permit the commercial use of Space Show programs or any part thereof, nor do we permit editing, YouTube clips, or clips placed on other private channels & websites. Space Show programs can be quoted, but the quote must be cited or referenced using the proper citation format. Contact The Space Show for further information. In addition, please remember that your Amazon purchases can help support The Space Show/OGLF. See www.onegiantleapfoundation.org/amazon.htm. For those listening to archives using live365.com and rating the programs, please email me as to why you assign a specific rating to the show. This will help me bring better programming to the audience.

Welcome to our final Open Lines program for May 2015. During the first segment of our 1 hour 46 minute program, I threw out some suggested topics for discussion including Space Show website changes, our planned crowd funding project for financing the new website, a satirical article in The Onion, “NASA Announces Bold Plan To Still Exist By 2045” (see www.theonion.com/article/nasa-announces-bold-plan-still-exist-2045-50398), and the possibility of the government regulating lunar and asteroid mining plus other topics as well. Tim from Huntsville was our first caller. He misunderstood my comment about The Onion article and wanted to know what bold plan NASA was announcing for 2045. I clarified the matter with him but he still seemed to think the article had more to do with the reality of NASA today rather than just a comedy article in The Onion. I disagreed with him but he did say that space policy based on a two term administration and then changing was not productive and should be changed. Later in my conversation with Tim I mentioned an LA Times article by Jerry Hirsch which was highly critical of Elon Must for taking government subsidies. Little did I know that this article would be the hot topic of the day on this Open Lines program. The actual article, “Elon Musk’s growing empire is fueled by $4.9 billion in government subsidies” can be read at www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-hy-musk-subsidies-20150531-story.html#page=1. As I sated on air with several callers and emailers, I thought the article was incomplete and a hit piece since it ignored the basic economic facts of government non-cash subsidies. Dennis Wingo called in to refute the article though Kelly Starks emailed us in support of the main theme of the article. During John’s call from Florida, I was asked to see if the article’s author would come on The Space Show. I commented that I was probably not that interested in talking to him and noted my experience with general audience journalists (not all of them) as compared to talking with space journalists. In the meantime, Marshall called to chime in on the presidential cycle and space policy and what it means for long term space projects. We did note several projects that have survived through various administrations such as Hubble, many of the planetary science missions, SLS and more.

In the second segment, Tom, a first time caller to the show from Seattle, wanted to talk about his view of the space industry being immature. By immature, he meant that doing only a hundred or fewer launches a year and not that much new being done in space indicated being immature to him. He also supported Rocket Lab, Planet Labs and the emerging cubesat industry. We talked about the need to lower the cost of space access to get more players and ventures in space. Michael Listner called into to talk in detail about the newly passed House commercial space bill. He said it was passed on party lines and would go to the Senate and there would have to be compromises for it to go to the President. He talked about problems areas including company liability for example. He also mentioned the new title for astronauts who will fly on the Dragon and CST 100, Government Astronauts. By giving the crew this title, they will not be designated spaceflight participants, thus their safety can be regulated NASA and the spacecraft will need some sort of certification or something to fly government astronauts on board. This will allow NASA to set crew safety standards. He referenced a Space Review article which you can read here: http://thespacereview.com/article/2759/1. Doug from S. California was our next caller. He introduced us to the term paraterraforming. Doug explained this to us in some detail. He also called it “reversible exploration.” This discussion included noting the ethical issues around any type of terraforming, radiation, energy requirements, and more.

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Guest: Dr. Chris Impey. Topics: “Beyond: Our Future In Space” plus many space policy issues and our future in space. Please direct all comments and questions regarding Space Show programs/guest(s) to the Space Show blog, https://thespaceshow.wordpress.com. Comments and questions should be relevant to the specific Space Show program. Written Transcripts of Space Show programs are a violation of our copyright and are not permitted without prior written consent, even if for your own use. We do not permit the commercial use of Space Show programs or any part thereof, nor do we permit editing, YouTube clips, or clips placed on other private channels & websites. Space Show programs can be quoted, but the quote must be cited or referenced using the proper citation format. Contact The Space Show for further information. In addition, please remember that your Amazon purchases can help support The Space Show/OGLF. See www.onegiantleapfoundation.org/amazon.htm. For those listening to archives using live365.com and rating the programs, please email me as to why you assign a specific rating to the show. This will help me bring better programming to the audience.

We welcomed back Dr. Chris Impey to the program for this 63 minute program discussing his latest book “Beyond: Our Future In Space” and related policy, economic, and technical space questions. Visit his website, www.chrisimpey.com for more information. Please remember if you buy his book through TSS/OGLF Amazon portal, Amazon will donate a percentage of the sales price to The Space Show. Instructions are on the website and all archived show summaries. We began our discussion with Dr. Impey providing us with the background to his latest book in that many people believe that our space program is in the doldrums, that NASA is beset with many problems and for some, they wonder why even bother with space. Dr. Impey wanted to show the audience that this was not the case so he wrote his latest book to show the benefits of space development and why we must have a future in space. The book mostly focuses on the human spaceflight potential but we discussed science missions and a space program that would be much broader than just human spaceflight. He also said the new industry was ready to go viral but had not done so yet. He suggested some dramatic events might be the turning point in changing the momentum so don’t miss what he had to say about this. We talked about NASA and NewSpace and he said it was no longer either or and that NASA was now partnering with NewSpace companies and the private sector. Dr. Impey highlighted the growth in the cubesat industry as an example of things changing. We talked about international space missions and he mentioned both Russia and China. With regards to China, ITAR was discussed as was the potential militarization of space. A listener asked our guest about an economic model and he said that was still troubling. He thought mining asteroids would not be viable if at all for a very long time. Listen to his explanation behind this conclusion. On the other hand, he thought space tourism was shaping up to have a robust market and was optimistic that the companies would soon be flying. I asked him for his five year timeline for big events. He listed operations with SpaceShip2 and Virgin and that SpaceX will commercialize reusability. He also expected to see fleets of commercially operating nano and microsats. Next,, he said the Moon or Mars was harder with people and that would take place over the next 10-15 years. He suggested China would visit the Moon with taikonauts in about a 15 year time frame. He said the Moon would happen when we have a new generation of talent and innovative people pushing it at the ground floor level. Listener Larry asked him about the regulatory risk. He thought it would be relatively stable as it is now. BJohn asked him about planetary science, astrobiology, geology, and biology along with the Big Bang Theory. Next, we discussed astronomy, including Earth astronomy but also exoplanets and the habitable zone. A listener asked him about finding life on Mars, either past or present and how that might impact the public with supporting space. Chris had very interesting comments about this so don’t miss them. Another listener asked him for his preference in destinations, the Moon or Mars. He said the Moon. Listen for the why. Space settlement was discussed, more on the NASA budget and a question came up about the use of nuclear propulsion. Near the end of the show he was asked about efforts in pursuing Faster Than Light Travel (FTL) and warp drive. He was not optimistic in this area. As the program was ending, I asked our guest how university teaching had changed over the course of his career. This led us to talking about student loans and university funding from the state and federal government.

Please post your comments on TSS blog above. You can reach Dr. Impey through me or his blog.

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Guests: John Batchelor, Doug Messier, Dr. David Livingston. Topics: Mars One, small satellite launchers with VG & others. You are invited to comment, ask questions, and discuss the Space Show program/guest(s) on the Space Show blog. Comments, questions, and any discussion must be relevant and applicable to Space Show programming. Written Transcripts of Space Show programs are not permitted without prior written consent from The Space Show (even if for personal use) & are a violation of the Space Show copyright. We do not permit the commercial use of any Space Show program or part thereof, nor do we permit Space Show programs to be edited, placed on YouTube, or other private channels & websites. Space Show programs can be quoted in news articles, papers, academic & research work but must be cited or referenced in the proper citation format. Contact Dr. Livingston for questions about our copyright and trademark policies which we do enforce. This program is archived on The Space Show website, podcasting, and blog sites with permission from John Batchelor. Please visit the John Batchelor Show website for more information about this fine program, www.johnbatchelorshow.com. Remember, your Amazon Purchases Can Help Support The Space Show/OGLF (www.onegiantleapfoundation.org/amazon.htm). For those of you listening to archives on live365.com & rating the programs, please email me the reasons for your rating. This will definitely help improve Space Show programming. Thank you. Please note that audio and transition issues are a result of copying the John Batchelor broadcast & are not within my control as they originate in the Batchelor studio.

John Batchelor and I welcomed back Doug Messier to discuss Mars One, Virgin Galactic and Launcher One. Mars One was up first, then John focused on Virgin Galactic. Doug talked about their recent job fair success in Long Beach, their new hanger for Launcher One and we talked about the small satellite launch business in general including the Air Force rail gun small satellite launcher, Super Strypi. John asked lots of questions about the viability of Mars One plus the small satellite launcher industry and the new participants developing this industry at a fast clip.

You can email Mr. Batchelor or Doug Messier through me at drspace@thespaceshow.com. Doug can also be reached through his excellent website, Parabolic Arc.

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Guest: Open Lines with Dr. David Livingston. Topics: We covered a wide range of space news, industry, & timely topics. Please direct all comments and questions regarding Space Show programs/guest(s) to the Space Show blog, https://thespaceshow.wordpress.com. Comments and questions should be relevant to the specific Space Show program. Written Transcripts of Space Show programs are a violation of our copyright and are not permitted without prior written consent, even if for your own use. We do not permit the commercial use of Space Show programs or any part thereof, nor do we permit editing, YouTube clips, or clips placed on other private channels & websites. Space Show programs can be quoted, but the quote must be cited or referenced using the proper citation format. Contact The Space Show for further information. In addition, please remember that your Amazon purchases can help support The Space Show/OGLF. See http://www.onegiantleapfoundation.org/amazon.htm. For those listening to archives using live365.com and rating the programs, please email me as to why you assign a specific rating to the show. This will help me bring better programming to the audience.

Welcome to our first Open Lines show for 2015. During the first segment of our two hour program, I made a few topic suggestions as usual. In my suggestions, I asked for listener ideas for both debate and webinar topics plus guests to invite for the suggested programming. In the second segment listeners sent in many good suggestions but for those of you listening on archives, please send in more. Sending in guest suggestions for the debate and webinar topics would be very helpful. The first call was from John in Florida. He wanted to talk about several topics including the SpaceX effort to land the first stage on the barge. He also talked about Blue Atlas, Orion, Apollo, the NASA risk averseness and more. Dr. Lurio called next to tell us where we could see photos of the barge after the crash landing of the first stage. He also commented on news relating to Blue Origin & the Elon Musk interview on Bloomberg.com.

In the second segment, John called from Ft. Worth, commented on my comments re the email I read about the movie “The Principle” and his thoughts on doing a show with the people behind the movie. John also asked about the SpaceX refurbishment plans for the first stage once they recover it. Furthermore, he talked about Elon’s plan for satellites and more. He asked if SpaceX might be overextending with all the ventures and projects it and Elon are involved in or announcing. Several listeners sent in debate and webinar topic suggestions including nuclear propulsion, Is Mars The Goal, Mars vs. Europa, National Competition versus International Cooperation, Space Shuttle debates and more. Pooley called in and we talked about Microlaunchers and other issues.

Please post your comments/questions on The Space Show blog above. You can reach any of the participants through me at drspace@thespaceshow.com

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Guest: Tom Olson. Topics: The year 2011 in review regarding all space issues. Please direct all comments and questions regarding Space Show programs/guest(s) to the Space Show blog, https://thespaceshow.wordpress.com. Comments and questions should be relevant to the specific Space Show program. Written Transcripts of Space Show programs are a violation of our copyright and are not permitted without prior written consent, even if for your own use. We do not permit the commercial use of Space Show programs or any part thereof, nor do we permit editing, YouTube clips, or clips placed on other private channels & websites. Space Show programs can be quoted, but the quote must be cited or referenced using the proper citation format. Contact The Space Show for further information. In addition, please remember that your Amazon purchases can help support The Space Show/OGLF. See www.onegiantleapfoundation.org/amazon.htm.

Welcome to our Golden Oldie Decade of Review, this year with the space year 2011. Tom Olson was our reviewer for this 2011 review, aired live on Dec. 27, 2011. We had much to cover in this 105 minute program. Tom started out reminding us that 2011 was the 50th anniversary of human spaceflight. He told us about the banner year for Yuri’s Night parties around the globe celebrating this important milestone and specifically about the even he attended in New Your City. Next, he pointed out the recent National Press Club talk given by Elon Musk on going to Mars and building the rockets to take us there, plus his recent New Scientist interview which you can read in full on the Mars Society website. Tom commented that the sky was actually falling in 2011 with two large junk satellites coming back to Earth. We also talked about the return of Phobos Grunt to earth probably in early to mid-January 2012. One of the big events we discussed for 2011 was the retirement of the shuttle. This led us to discussing the recent Chinese space rendezvous and the fact that China is now the number two launching country behind Russia having overtaken the U.S. this year. Planetary missions were part of our year in review with Vesta and Dawn, the Kepler Space Telescope, MSL with Curiosity. New Horizons continued its journey to Pluto and Explorer 1 continued beyond our solar system. Tom talked about SLS and the ORION MPC Vehicle, plus the James Webb Space Telescope and its cost issues in the context of its impact on the NASA budget. Soyuz rocket problems along with all the Russian rocket failures this year were fair game for our discussion. I asked Tom what he thought of the idea of SLS as a place holder for skill sets and technology until our space program improves. Don’t miss his answer. He brought up Virgin Galactic’s drop tests this year, especially the last one where trouble showed up. Making news for 2011 were NASA and space industry workforce layoffs and the successful Falcon 9 and Dragon launch. At the end of the first segment, Bigelow Aerospace was in our spotlight.

In segment two, Tom led off with XCOR news, Terry called wondering about CCDEV3 and Tom suggested program winners! Don’t miss his prediction. He also was asked to predict the cancellation year for SLS. Don’t miss this prediction as well. We talked about the upcoming New Space Business Plan Competition for 2012, the prizes which are the largest ever, and the timing. If this interests you, make sure to stay tuned for more information. Later in the segment we began a summary of our discussion and 2011. Tom was asked about the space elevator and the Lunar Space Elevator. We wrapped up our discussion talking about growth in the space conferences even in the tough economic year of 2011.

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Guest: Andy Weir. Topics: We engaged author Andy Weir in a thorough discussion of his best selling book, “The Martian” along with the essential engineering & needed technology for survival. Please direct all comments and questions regarding Space Show programs/guest(s) to the Space Show blog, https://thespaceshow.wordpress.com. Comments and questions should be relevant to the specific Space Show program. Written Transcripts of Space Show programs are a violation of our copyright and are not permitted without prior written consent, even if for your own use. We do not permit the commercial use of Space Show programs or any part thereof, nor do we permit editing, YouTube clips, or clips placed on other private channels & websites. Space Show programs can be quoted, but the quote must be cited or referenced using the proper citation format. Contact The Space Show for further information. In addition, please remember that your Amazon purchases can help support The Space Show/OGLF. See http://www.onegiantleapfoundation.org/amazon.htm. For those listening to archives using live365.com and rating the programs, please email me as to why you assign a specific rating to the show. This will help me bring better programming to the audience.

We welcomed best selling author Andy Weir to the program to discuss his book “The Martian.” For more information, visit his websites, http://www.andyweirauthor.com and http://www.galactanet.com. During the first segment of our 100 minute show, Andy started out by telling us how he came up with the story idea, & his three years spent in writing the book. I asked if he used consultants, NASA, or other aerospace experts. He said no & that most of the feedback and help came through suggestions from people who read the chapters he put up on his website. Andy also did his own research, math work, physics, and engineering analysis. He talked about a few errors that were pointed out to him & indicated that the most challenging work were the times and orbits regarding Mars and the missions described in the book. During the show, Andy got lots of email questions and phone calls regarding certain story lines and sections of the book. He was also asked about life on Mars but that issue was not relevant to his story. He did get questions about the human waste recycling carried out on Mars & why he chose Mars and not the Moon or another destination. Sandra asked him about the private space company plans to visit and/or settle Mars given how hard it was for Andy’s character, Watney, to survive. Andy had very interesting comments on this question including the Elon Musk Mars plans and then Mars One. Human factors were brought up including radiation, microgravity, vision problems, and more. Andy did address these issues in the book so listen to his reply to this line of questioning. As the segment ended, we talked about using Phobos and Deneb for Martian navigation along with Watney’s trek to get to Pathfinder to use its parts for communication. NASA came up several times in the segment as readers get a pretty good “view” of NASA problem solving, information, data, and PR control, plus amazing creativity.

In the second segment, we had lots of listener emails and phone calls. Andy was asked what science fiction had influenced him, then he got an interesting email from Andrew in Tucson who had actually worked on the Pathfinder hardware. Andrew said Andy was spot on accurate! Dr. Doug called on many topics including using the Hohmann Transfer Orbit which Andy did not use as he designed Hermes, the big spaceship, to work with constant acceleration using ion propulsion. The Aldrin Cycler was also mentioned. Listeners mentioned the new movie Interstellar and made some comparisons if they had read “The Martian” and seen the move. In both segments, we talked about “The Martian” being made into a film for release in a year. Andy said so far the scriptfollowed the book but he did say he has no editorial input to the movie. We got a call from Curt in Taiwan who wished there was a PG version of the book given he wants his kids to read it and some of the language is course. Sara emailed us from Denver asking if Andy had considered making the hero character Watney a woman instead of a man. Tim was the last caller & he wanted to know if the hard science & engineering would be in the movie. During this final segment, Andy was asked about how he got to Mars without a transfer orbit. He suggested we view his animated video on this at http://www.galactanet.com/martian/hermes.mp4. In addition, he referred us to his Google talk. You can easily find it by searching for “Andy Weir Google Talk.”

Please post your comments/questions on TSS blog above. You can reach Andy through his websites or me.

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Guest: Gerald Driggers. Topics: Mars Settlement, The Earth-Mars Chronicles book series. Please direct all comments and questions regarding Space Show programs/guest(s) to the Space Show blog, https://thespaceshow.wordpress.com. Comments and questions should be relevant to the specific Space Show program. Written Transcripts of Space Show programs are a violation of our copyright and are not permitted without prior written consent, even if for your own use. We do not permit the commercial use of Space Show programs or any part thereof, nor do we permit editing, YouTube clips, or clips placed on other private channels & websites. Space Show programs can be quoted, but the quote must be cited or referenced using the proper citation format. Contact The Space Show for further information. In addition, please remember that your Amazon purchases can help support The Space Show/OGLF. See http://www.onegiantleapfoundation.org/amazon.htm. For those listening to archives using live365.com and rating the programs, please email me as to why you assign a specific rating to the show. This will help me bring better programming to the audience.

We welcomed Gerald Driggers to the program to discuss his theories about Mars settlement but his science fiction book series Earth-Mars Chronicles. You can find out more about his work and books by visiting http://earth-mars.com. During the first segment of our 100 minute program, Mr. Driggers talked about his early interest in space exploration, his early work in the industry & then his becoming a space age dropout as he described it. He told us why he embarked on the Earth-Mars Chronicles series. Listeners sent him email questions asking him why Mars was so important & why it should be the choice for human settlement off the planet. Gerald responded to these early “why” questions. A listener asked if he would do a one way mission to Mars. You might be surprised by his answer. Next up was Mars One given Gerald was one of the early supporters of the organization. Gerald had much to say about Mars One and the Mars One model for humans to Mars. He also discussed other HSF to Mars Models but their was lots of listener interest in discussing Mars One with our guest. Later, Gerald said we would need to be at the Technical Readiness Level 7 (TR7) to go to Mars, be it the private sector or with the government. June emailed to ask about the minimum viable size for a Martian settlement, including genetic screening. Evon emailed about landing large payloads on Mars & how Gerald addressed that problem in his books. Gerald brought up the need for humanity to be off Earth in case Earth is destroyed so I asked him if we needed to be in a hurry to develop an off Earth presence on Mars. Our guest suggested it would be a very long time in coming as there was no forcing function for HSF to Mars, nor is fundamental research being done regarding human survival on long duration spaceflight trips. Doug called to ask about the economic justification for settlements on Mars & to ask if the Moon was not a better and more economic choice than Mars.

In the second segment, Kirk from Trinidad phoned in to ask about the online presence for Mars One. We also asked him about space in Trinidad and if it was a hot topic or area of interest. More emails came in & Christine wanted to know what was next for Gerald in Earth-Mars Chronicles. Tony wanted to know if there was a spiritual component to HSF to Mars. Our guest responded in the context of religions. Judith’s note inquired if one of greatest blockades to space exploration were the entertainment options today including video games, computers, & other forms of entertainment.

Please post your comments/questions on TSS blog above. You can reach Gerald through his website or me.

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Guest: Elon Musk from Oct. 24, 2001; Topic: Golden Oldie Archive Play regarding the Mars Oasis plan and Elon’s ideas for a multi-planet species by settling on Mars. Please direct all comments and questions regarding Space Show programs/guest(s) to the Space Show blog, https://thespaceshow.wordpress.com. Comments and questions should be relevant to the specific Space Show program. Written Transcripts of Space Show programs are a violation of our copyright and are not permitted without prior written consent, even if for your own use. We do not permit the commercial use of Space Show programs or any part thereof, nor do we permit editing, YouTube clips, or clips placed on other private channels & websites. Space Show programs can be quoted, but the quote must be cited or referenced using the proper citation format. Contact The Space Show for further information. In addition, please remember that your Amazon purchases can help support The Space Show/OGLF. See http://www.onegiantleapfoundation.org/amazon.htm. For those listening to archives using live365.com and rating the programs, please email me as to why you assign a specific rating to the show. This will help me bring better programming to the audience.

This is a Golden Oldie program from Oct. 24, 2001. At this time, The Space Show was known as Business Without Boundaries and was aired on a Phoenix radio station. The formatting of the program was that of the radio station as they divided the 60 minute discussion into 5 short segments. All the commercial breaks and music from back then are included in this discussion. Elon was the 16th guest on The Space Show (Business Without Boundaries). In the first segment, we talked about the why of Elon’s interest in space and the need to be on a second planet. Mr. Musk talked about the different reasons for wanting to go to space but for him it was to insure survival of our species by being a multi-planet species. Elon then discussed his Mars Oasis Project which was time lined for 2005 as a private mission. He wanted to rally American public opinion for the need for a human presence on Mars. Our guest took us deeper into Mars Oasis with his greenhouse plans and some of the crops he thought would be suitable for the project.

In the second segment, Elon again said they were looking for a 2005 launch with a landing on Mars in 2006. A listener asked him about using off the shelf technology and Bruce from Stanford wanted to know about Russian-US cooperation since the plan was to use a converted Russian SS18 ICBM for the launch vehicle. Our guest also identified some of the equipment that would be part of the Mars Oasis payload. John in St. Louis asked Elon if this was a commercial project with an expected ROI. The answer was that it was a humanitarian project and no ROI was expected.

In the third segment, Elon was asked to estimate the costs for the project. He said that NASAs cheaper missions were around $200-250 million and full cost missions were higher. In this segment he suggested the costs might be 10-15% of the lower NASA costs. He was also planning two missions since it was possible for one to fail.

In the fourth segment, Elon was asked additional questions about the costs which he approximated at $20-$30 million. Another question dealt with regulatory issues. Here, Elon did talk about ITAR but said at present there were no laws or regulations regarding a private mission to Mars. Remember now, our discussion took place in 2001. Near the end of this short segment, questions about using the NASA DSN came up as Mars Oasis would need to communicate with Earth. Elon suggested a design for his own communication network which he said might be commercialized down the road for other upcoming commercial space users.

In the fifth and final short segment, Elon summarized our discussion and said that he wanted to both change the world & create a world. He also said we were closer to being able to go to Mars than JFK was when he said we would go to the Moon.

Post your comments on The Space Show blog but remember, this discussion aired Oct. 24, 2001. 9/11 had just happened. We were preparing for war, our nation was very different then than it is today. If you listen to later interviews with Elon, you will hear him discuss why Mars Oasis was tabled and why he thought it necessary to build his own rocket and rocket company. You can find these archived programs using the GuestSearch tool on our website. Search for his name. You want the programs where he was the guest, not just talked about by others. Hats off to Elon Musk for his flexibility and for his work in making sure his vision eventually comes to life and reality.

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Guest: Brian Altmeyer. Topics: We discussed the guest’s article posted on the Oct. 6, 2014 issues of The Space Review: “The Strange Contagion Of a Dream.” Please direct all comments and questions regarding Space Show programs/guest(s) to the Space Show blog, https://thespaceshow.wordpress.com. Comments and questions should be relevant to the specific Space Show program. Written Transcripts of Space Show programs are a violation of our copyright and are not permitted without prior written consent, even if for your own use. We do not permit the commercial use of Space Show programs or any part thereof, nor do we permit editing, YouTube clips, or clips placed on other private channels & websites. Space Show programs can be quoted, but the quote must be cited or referenced using the proper citation format. Contact The Space Show for further information. In addition, please remember that your Amazon purchases can help support The Space Show/OGLF. See http://www.onegiantleapfoundation.org/amazon.htm. For those listening to archives using live365.com and rating the programs, please email me as to why you assign a specific rating to the show. This will help me bring better programming to the audience.

We welcomed Brian Altmeyer to the program to discuss his Oct. 6, 2014 Space Review article, “The Strange Contagion of a Dream: How Space Visionaries Hijack Governments to Change the World (see http://www.thespacereview.com/article/2611/1). During the first segment of our 1 hour 27 minute discussion, Mr. Altmeyer introduced us to the background behind writing this article, how he got the idea for it, plus he explained the overall impact space visionaries have had on him and his interest in space development. Our guest took us back in time to the V2 program, Von Braun, and the politics of beating the Soviet Union to the Moon. He made the case that both the Soviet Union’s and the US space program fed off each other in the form of competition to not only develop military space resources and ICBMs, plus our civil space programs as well. I then asked our guest if he thought competition with China over their lunar and long range plans would result in a similar push for civil and commercial space. His response was very interesting. Ellen in Portland sent an email suggesting we did not have inspirational or effective leaders today like we had with Von Braun and others. Brian disputed that and made reference to Elon Musk at SpaceX several times during our discussion. Gerald Driggers called to talk about the impact of the International Geophysical Year on our early program. Gerald worked in the early space program & had much to say about the main space personalities of the time along with the early rockets. Our guest was asked about vision and Mars One, again he brought up SpaceX, and then he talked about exoplanets. I asked him about the second to last paragraph in his paper regarding leadership issues and many waiting or expecting a new leader to come on the scene in a future election. Don’t miss his comments on this issue.

In the second segment, Brian was asked about space budgets serving as a limiting factor & if SpaceX was carrying too much of the burden for our moving forward with space development. Listeners asked him about sustainable space projects inspired & pushed by advocacy. Do the projects continue or eventually die off? Allison sent in a note asking our guest why we even needed HSF. For his response, he cited reasons often provided by Elon Musk when he gets this question or one like it. Near the end of the program, Ron emailed our guest to challenge his visionary outlook by asking if he had considered the reality of applying human medical factors, engineering realities, orbital mechanics, & the known science for rockets & human spaceflight regarding the type of visionary statements made by Brian during the show. This proved to be an interesting discussion as Brian said there were two ways to resolve such issues. One way would be through testing and incremental progress to resolve or mitigate problems and the other way would be to just do the flight and sort of learn on the job, realizing there would be lots of casualties but at least we would be flying and learning. I asked our guest if he was dismissing the known engineering &science including medical science. He said he was not but clearly he preferred the second approach to problem solving. What do you think?

Please let us know by posting your comments/questions on TSS blog above. You can reach our guest through me or the email address he provided at the end of his Space Review article.

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Guest: Rex Ridenoure. Topics: Ecliptic Enterprises updates, commercial space, commercial space and the future. Please direct all comments and questions regarding Space Show programs/guest(s) to the Space Show blog, https://thespaceshow.wordpress.com. Comments and questions should be relevant to the specific Space Show program. Written Transcripts of Space Show programs are a violation of our copyright and are not permitted without prior written consent, even if for your own use. We do not permit the commercial use of Space Show programs or any part thereof, nor do we permit editing, YouTube clips, or clips placed on other private channels & websites. Space Show programs can be quoted, but the quote must be cited or referenced using the proper citation format. Contact The Space Show for further information. In addition, please remember that your Amazon purchases can help support The Space Show/OGLF. See http://www.onegiantleapfoundation.org/amazon.htm. For those listening to archives using live365.com and rating the programs, please email me as to why you assign a specific rating to the show. This will help me bring better programming to the audience.

We welcomed back Rex Ridenoure to the show for this 96 minute discussion containing Ecliptic Enterprises updates, commercial space programs and business models, plus much more. In the first segment, our guest provided us with updates for Ecliptic from the time he left the company to do consulting for private missions and then his return to the position he left. Government sequestration happened about the same time and hurt Ecliptic as you will hear, plus it caused Rex to come back to Ecliptic. You will also hear how business has come back for Ecliptic since sequestration ended. Rex talked about new contracts, the focus of their business and more. He spoke about RocketCam and updated us on some of its new market potential plus features and advancements. We talked about the emergence of cubesat companies as potential Ecliptic customers given the advancements in this field. Rex talked about a new emerging business line for the company in the form of being an integrating contractor rather than only a subcontractor to a prime. Export control and ITAR were discussed when I asked if RocketCam was being sold to foreign launchers. The short answer was no but listen to what Rex had to say about export control and the hope for new rules in the near future. Rex introduced us to the concept of experiment control on the ISS. This pertains to experiments on board the ISS being controlled by ground personnel rather than by the ISS crew. Doug called to ask about the purpose of the Ecliptic projects plus goals for Rex with his work. Don’t miss the killer reply Rex gave Doug. Other topics in this segment dealt with rad tolerant hardware as opposed to radiation hardened hardware and streaming data back to Earth on the DSN or another system.

In the second segment, Rex spent most of the time talking about commercial space and his years in service to developing commercial space including early in his career. See the career time table for Rex that I have posted on the blog. Rex identified a few of the early commercial space projects he was involved with, then he said we had finished the first wave of reconnaissance of our solar system. Listen to his explanation for this statement. Rex next talked about one of the next big commercial areas for development which he said would be bringing space resources to the Earth economic system. Listener Paul emailed a question asking about commercial space efforts in other countries. Following that discussion, Rex told us about attending the 10th anniversary XPrize event at Mojave which was an invitation only event. I asked Rex if people were disappointed that ten years had gone by without commercial spaceflights. He did say that their was an air of disappointment in the room among those attending the event. Near the end of our show, Rex was asked about HSF to Mars. He also talked about the early program Elon Musk wanted to do, Mars Oasis. SLS came up for discussion, then Rex provided us with a list of take away points for our discussion. He ended by saying that commercial launch dated back to 1963 and the trend was for more commercial launches and space projects. He said commercial space was based on a 50 year old proven model.